Ilya, I am interested in Russia.
I have no idea how life in Russia differs from life in Britain, Germany, France or North America.
I guess I have to go there to find out, but no doubt Russians are the same as we are. They want to live their lives in peace, be comfortable financially and raise a family in happy circumstances?
One of the good things about the Soviet Union was that everybody got an opportunity to have a first rate education. Is that still the same?
Probably there are no shortages of anything in the stores anymore?
Has Putin done anything about organised crime?
Can he get re-elected?

Obelix, we are living in different countries. And a citizen of a current country worries about his own country, because he lives there. And it`s not bad when he doesn`t know what`s going on outside.
I don`t know what`s going on in Peru, Brazilia and so on. And I`m silent about that. But there are people who heard something and begin talking in such a way that they know everything about that. I like how you write, that`s why I respect and prize your opinion.
I think foreigners see Russia in the form of old USSR with some changes in democracy and economics. But Russia changed completly. Russia lost practically everything. We have had only nuclear weapons and people (clever and educated people). But unfortunately people have been leaving our country as well.
The main problem is economics. We have the growth of GIP about 5% per year. But it`s too small for us in order to reach well-developed countries in a close future. And this growth is ensured by oil`s high prices. The oil and gas give us almost a half of budget incomes.
Because we have the weak economics we can solve others problems including the criminality. The police is corrupted because of small wages of policemen (military men). The police is also equiped very bed, they have not enough cars, weapons and so on. We have the same problems in army. Our army is not professional, all young people (18-23) have to serve in army for two years. But because of small wages of officers and the lack of food in army, officers and soldiers became angry. And we have bitting soldiers by officers and old soldeirs (who serves more than a year). This problem is very troubled, young soldiers escaped from army. There are many examples when they shoot officers and others soldiers killing them and escaping after that. They can not serve any more in such conditions. Russian people claim from Putin to make a professional army. He wants do it but step by step (start with one region and so on). I think it`s his weakness, he can`t struggle with generals, who use soldiers in building thier houses and steal budget money (soldiers get nothing).
We still have a free high education, medical service. But there are many problems in these fields as well.
So, there are many problems. Putin reformed a law system, political system. But it`s nothing without economics. The problem is we have weak corrupted government. He`s going to change it after next elections. Of course, there will be next president election (in March of 2004), he can not become president more than two times (like in USA), the term is 4 years.
Putin is a successor of Eltzin. He was not well-known at all when he become a vice-president. And people didn`t like him because he said that he was a successor of Eltzin (people didn`t like (even hated) Eltzin by that time (1999). But then terrorists rushed in Russia from Chechnya attacking vilages of our regions. Besides they exploded some houses with innocent people in Moscow and other cities while these people were sleeping. And he became a leader of sruggling with terrorists. We got free our region. And then we went to Chechnya. He was sure in methods of solving Chechen`s problem. People were tired because of stealing people, camps of terrorists and demands of ransoms and so on. And Russians were releived that they saw a man who was solving this problem. And the reiting of Putin increased fantasticly and he became a president with 51% of voters.
As i said the government is corrupted. The half of this government are Putin`s people (they worked toghether in S-peterburg in the mayor`s adminisration). He believes that people and they worked. But there is the another half. It consists of Eltzin people. He stayed them after quiting Eltzin because some of them helped him went to Kremlin, but some of them .... Nobody knows why some people work there. Everyone knows they are corrupted, but he don`t dismiss them, he just changed their places (from ministry to assistant of somebody and so on).
You see how much i wrote. If you want to know a current something, so write a closer definition. Or i can write infinitely.
I`d like to know your opinion about this situation, Putin and so on.

Ilya, thanks for the detailed reply. Western writers who visit Russia do not have the same feel for Russia as her native sons. To me Putin seems to understand how to deal with Europeans and the USA. He seems to be, on a personal level, a man who gets along well with George Bush.

Russia will eventually become an economic world power to rival the USA, I think.